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Willebrord von Roijen Snell

Willebrord von Roijen Snell. Reference #1. Life Facts. Born 1591* in Leiden, Netherlands. Born into a rich family. Son of a Mathematician/Linguist Entered the university of Leiden intending to study Law. At the age of 11, he was lecturing in mathematics at the University

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Willebrord von Roijen Snell

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  1. Willebrord von Roijen Snell Reference #1

  2. Life Facts • Born 1591* in Leiden, Netherlands. • Born into a rich family. Son of a Mathematician/Linguist • Entered the university of Leiden intending to study Law. • At the age of 11, he was lecturing in mathematics at the University • At a young age, he traveled extensively over Europe, visiting astronomers. *This date is disputed somewhat with 1580 being the other common date.

  3. Curriculum vitae • Succeeded his father in 1613 as professor of mathematics • He was one of the first to apply mathematics extensively in astronomy. • 1617 published Eratosthenes Batavus –methods for measuring the Earth • Tiphys batavus published in 1624 –concept of Loxodrome • Geometrically computed π to 7 digits

  4. Calculation of Earth’s Circumference 1 degree of the meridian • 55,100 toises = 117,449 yards • After some correction 57,033 toises = 121,569 yards • Actual =121,740.911yards • An error of less than 1 percent

  5. Snell’s Law of Refraction • Snell discovered Law of Refraction in 1621 N1sin Θ1= N2sin Θ2 Chemical Composition as well as incident angle determines angle of refraction. • Snell’s name not attributed to the law 1703, when Huygens published Dioptrica

  6. The Debate “… it was first published by French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) under the name Law of Sines in his 1637 work La Dioptrique. It seems probable that Descartes did not develop his Law of Sines independently…and so whether this law is called Snell’s Law or Descartes’ Law of Sines really depends on whether or not you are French.” From PhotoNotes.org Snell’s Law

  7. Bibliography [1] Science World, http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Snell.html, 20- Sep-04 [2] PhotoNotes, http://photonotes.org/cgi-bin/entry.pl?id=Snellslaw, 20-Sep-04 [3] LoveToKnow Encyclopedia, http://85.1911encyclopedia.org/S/SN/SNELL_WILLEBRORD.htm, 20-Sep-04 By Marshall Hart Adapted from a presention by Marian B. McKenzie and Walter Fox Smith

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